Phase I - Partnership for Quality Project This application proposes a Cooperative Agreement between HealthFront and the AHRQ for a Phase I planning process to develop the methods to support the national, purchaser supported, Excellence in Quality Award proposed by Reward Health Care Inc., and to plan for and develop the analytical capacity needed to support purchaser decisions through the national Center for Value Purchasing Methods. The center will serve as a resource to payers and purchasers to standardize incentives to support the translation of clinical guidelines and best practices into active practice. Through the work of AHRQ (and AHCPR) and others, providers are largely in agreement about the appropriate clinical guidelines for primary and secondary preventive services and management of chronic disease. The time is right for a broad "translation" of these findings into clinical practice to take place. But that translation depends on development of a parallel set of common measures and methods to reward performance. Through the national Center for Value Purchasing Methods, purchasers and payers can come together around a standardized set of performance measurement and payment expectations creating a strong business case for provider adoption of these quality measures. Minnesota purchasers have identified the need to create a national resource that will bring to bear the technical expertise, research capacity and resources needed to create change. The Buyers Health Care Action Group, Minnesota Department of Human Services, the state Department of Employee Relations, were involved in the initial planning of a proposed national center to provide scientifically sound quality incentive measurement and design assistance to payers. The National Institute of Health Policy, the Park Nicollet Research Institute and HealthFront have worked together to develop this aspect of the Partnership proposal. At the same time, these discussion have identified another immediate need with national implications. Reward Health Care Inc. is a newly formed for-profit company. RHC's business plan calls for the creation of a national Excellence in Quality Award program, funded by major purchasers, and providing a powerful cash incentive for providers to implement quality improvements. Through the Partnerships for Quality cooperative agreement, AHRQ and CVPM will assist Reward Health Care to develop a nationally recognized performance measurement, analysis and award program. At present, RHC has received support from one national employer and is working to establish purchaser sponsored reward pools in Kentucky, Minnesota and South Carolina. The Planning and Organizational Development Goals are: 1. To develop a method for demonstrating to purchasers the financial return on investment potential of performance improvement. 2. To design a Reward Health Care award and performance evaluation process, and 3. To develop the analytical capacity with a national Center for Value Purchasing Methods to allow purchases to standardize the performance measurement, valuing and incentive design processes. Phase II and III activities by the CVPM are described here and will be subject to change during planning.